Beginning to Bring Needs, Strategies, and Goals into Focus

Session Goal The purpose of this session is to use your program visualization, your SWOT analysis, and your ideas and preliminary plans to craft and refine a need statement that can guide your project.

What is a Need Statement? A strong need statement answers the question—what outcomes will improve if your change is successful? A strong guiding need statement is foundational to intentional, clear strategies, and meaningful evaluation. Your need statement will continue to evolve as you explore the issues and collect data.

What is not a Need Statement? A strategy An outcome A reason

Why Craft a Need Statement? It provides a foundation for your own plan to align your strategies, goals, outcomes, and evaluation in a way that makes the most of your great efforts. ENVIRONMENT We can change ENVIRONMENT Improved OUTCOMES We’re building a transformation bridge that bridges the inputs you know about to the outcomes you want. This bridge requires careful understanding of the environmental components within your control. And a clear recognition of equity. The starting point is understanding the NEED, which is essentially the difference between current outcomes and desired outcomes. Current OUTCOMES Control for INPUTS

Why Craft a Need Statement? This alignment supports evidence-based and data-driven inquiry, action, and evaluation. Need(s) Strategies Goals Outcomes/ Outputs This is a logic model

Crafting a strong need statement Focused on a needed improvement in core student-focused outcomes (rather than strategies) Equity minded and focused on areas with teams’ sphere of influence Representative of known data and responsive to new data

Equity Mindedness Equity-mindedness counteracts the tendency to explain equity gaps solely as the result of student deficits, rather what we as institutional agents can do to better support their success. This also helps to focus need statements on areas of influence or changing environment (rather than inputs). With PTR we see equity mindedness as… Practitioners must become aware of institutional inequities and take responsibility for reducing educational opportunity gaps and strive for equity, and parity, in outcomes. This approach is based in equity-mindedness, which counteracts the tendency to explain equity gaps solely as the result of student deficits, rather what we as institutional agents can do to better support their success.

Deficit-minded perceptions of things we can’t change Things we have the power to improve Need or Equity Gap Student- Deficit Conclusion Institutional Responsibility Inquiry Latino students are not passing the mathematics gateway course at the same rate as their White peers. Latino/a students are underprepared in mathematics. Are our pedagogies culturally relevant and engaging? Are faculty engaging with students differently across race or ethnicity? What are our goals in mathematics? Are we a “weed out” culture or a support for success culture? How can we partner with feeder schools to improve preparation? How do we work to improve preparedness of students prior to and upon admittance? What factors contribute to the success of Latino/a students who do not place in to developmental mathematics? What support services are we offering to students during the gateway mathematics course? Are Latino students participating and attaining the same benefit as other students? Deficit vs Asset-Based thinking in table form. Deficit statements attribute equity gaps to the students and what they are or are not doing to close the gap. The institutional responsibility statements/questions, look introspectively into the institutions to questions what they are or are not doing to best support the success of all student groups…

Suburban College Initial problem or need statement: Our pathway needs stronger marketing or recruitment resources online or through social media, particularly to diverse students.

Suburban College—Final Logic Model Success Vision: A Diverse Graduating Class that Mirrors the Community Need Strategies Goals Outcomes Students of color and women are overwhelmingly not completing this pathway or transferring in the field. - Culturally relevant course redesign - Supplemental instruction Bonus: Create a Facebook page and revamp their website More culturally relevant pedagogy Greater # accessing support services Improved course grades at midterm and final Improved retention and completion later in the pathway Students of color and women are overwhelmingly not passing the intro course to this pathway and therefore are not able to complete or transfer in the field. this was not a marketing issue after all

Midwest College #1 Initial need statement: Low-income students are not aware of the demands of this academic program and do not have the skills to succeed in the program. Contributing factors: Our program does not provide important information about program demands or career opportunities, particularly to Latinx students and families, or strategies for managing these demands, which results in lower-than-expected retention in this group.

Midwest College—Final Logic Model Need Strategies Goals Outcomes Success Vision: Equal Success for All Students in a Nursing Pathway Latinx and Low-Income students are experiencing lower retention outcomes in the nursing pathway Pathway specific college success course Family and Peer-to-peer orientation programs Mentoring opportunities - Internships Improved student & family knowledge of the academic plan multiple levels of program demands career opportunities and professional identity development Improved Retention and completion for these groups Improvement on other key success metrics e.g. GPA, learning Latinx and Low-Income students are experiencing lower retention outcomes in the nursing pathway than peers and cite difficulty managing unexpected course demands and doubts about career pathway. this was not a marketing issue after all Contributing factors: Our program does not provide important information about program demands or career opportunities, particularly to Latinx students and families, or strategies for managing these demands, which results in lower-than-expected retention in this group.

Definitions Need(s) Strategies Goals Outcomes/ Outputs Contributing factors Need(s) Strategies Goals Outcomes/ Outputs Defines a difference between existing outcomes and desired outcomes. Is student focused, equity-minded, and responsive to data. A solution or suite of solutions aligned to the need and the contributing factors identified through data and mapping related to that need. Improvements directly related to the contributing factors and strategies. These improvements may lead to the desired outcomes or outputs but only data will tell! Altered outcomes that reflect the identified need and population Logic Model, this is referred to throughout your exercises in the next two days. All it means is a framework that connects all of the critical elements in your work in a way that is aligned in terms of efforts, solutions, needs, goals, and outcomes. There are many ways to create a logic model, but the method and wording that is being used for your project and these activities, and the definitions you can work with as you think this through are as follows…

Team Time: Crafting your Need Statement

During Team Time: Sample need statements Latinx and Low-Income students are experiencing lower retention outcomes in a program than peers Students are not transferring to geoscience programs in the numbers we expect Nontraditional students are not accessing as many engaged learning opportunities or being retained in the program Women are not enrolling in this program and when they do, they are not persisting beyond one or two courses Students of Color are not enrolling in geoscience courses at the same rate as their White peers at our college Students who enroll in geoscience courses are not (equitably?) exposed to opportunities to develop a deep understanding of potential careers or opportunities in the field

Criteria for a good need statement—giving feedback (ROUND ROBIN ACTIVITY) Is the need clearly stated? Does it describe a solution rather than a need? Does it identify an outcome that can be changed either quantitatively or qualitatively? How do the three project strands play a part in this need? Is there a way that you would describe the need differently to be more compelling? Is the problem statement equity-minded, meaning—does it intentionally avoid blaming students’ perceived deficits?

Preview of What’s to Come Tonight Bring your visualization and SWOT posters to post in the Alumni Lounge and use them in talking with your Administrator. Share your progress so far including important conclusions from your program visualization, SWOT analysis (what do they need to know? What will help them understand your planning and goals?), and your need statement with your administrators.

Preview of What’s to Come on Next Day Tomorrow Process and practice mapping Discuss and plan to collect data to inform, confirm, and clarify your need, strategies, and goals You will work with your administrators to map the processes and supports that shape your students’ experience and outcomes in your program. We will provide inventories and ideas, but begin thinking tonight—what is most crucial to your students success in your program? What are the greatest barriers? You will then discuss